joe biden was asked precisely that question while he was in south korea today where he's been looking at the north at the dmz. he said he played no direct role. and he said he had no idea why merrill was released today. north korea said the reason was because of his ill health and because of his age. they also said that he had apologized for his supposed crimes during the korean war. of course newman, we believe, trained south korean guerrillas. a week ago we saw him on television in the north reading what was described as a confession. though it's not clear whether those words were written for him or whether he was forced to read them. he certainly looked uncomfortable. usually when these things have happened in the past and north koreans have held american citizens, often waiting until u.s. officials have gone in to pick them up and bring them home. officials do speculate that perhaps in this case with newman's advancing years with the so-called confession that they felt they had milked it for all its propaganda value and that now was the time to appear benevolent and to let him go,